


Turn This Into Something Sweet

by Machiavelien



Series: Spideychelle Prompts [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Break Up, Established Relationship, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Idiots in Love, Jealous Peter Parker, Reconciliation, Reconciliation Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:20:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Machiavelien/pseuds/Machiavelien
Summary: Although Peter and MJ have broken up, they're still Friends With Benefits who feel like they can’t really be in a relationship because of reasons™️ only for things to happen™️ and they decide to try again.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Spideychelle Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729360
Comments: 23
Kudos: 151





	Turn This Into Something Sweet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seekrest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/gifts), [kazkazooz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazkazooz/gifts).



> Guys, I did the thing!
> 
> It gets a wee bit smutty towards the end...
> 
> Check out Kaz's [ amazing artwork for this fic here!](https://kazkazoozoo.tumblr.com/post/613414819024994304/inspired-by-machiaveliens-spideychelle-fwb)

“I'm really sorry about tonight,” said Peter, running his fingers through his hair nervously, “I was really excited to go with you, but there was this car pile up on the triboro and construction was blocking the first responders and... I'm an idiot.”

“How dare you call my boyfriend an idiot,” MJ deadpanned, punching him lightly on the shoulder. Her lips quirked into a little side smile. “But really, I get it. Spidey stuff. Life and death.” 

Peter exhaled in relief, and the way her eyes shone with laughter made a small bubble of hope grow in his chest. But then she looked away and cleared her throat, trying to hide her sadness from him. 

And that felt worse than if she had been just annoyed or even angry with him; this felt like she had just given up on him a little more. 

Finally, she said, “It's okay. Just, like, let me know next time so I'm not just waiting around for you.”

He doesn't want to keep her waiting, worrying over him, wondering where he is and if he'll be where he says he'll be. But she's also the one part of his life where he lets himself be selfish. 

There was only one way for him to stop hurting her like this, to stop failing her as a boyfriend.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "You deserve better, MJ."

She smiled sadly at him, her arms wrapped around herself, then looked away, blinking a few times.

Thinking back to that night, Peter wonders if MJ already knew what he was going to do before he even knew himself.

===

Peter tried not to think about it. 

He had buried it in the back of his mind, otherwise he would be revisiting every word and gesture endlessly. 

He had felt so useless and helpless; people died, again, twice in the same day, under Spider-Man’s watch. 

MJ snapped at him to stop wearing a hole in her carpet, but then her voice was softer and everything he needed in that moment. “You’re just one guy, Peter, Spider-Man or not. There was nothing you could do—hey!”

He stopped pacing, took her into his arms, and kissed her. 

_I have to. I gotta get away from the pain._

It was a good kiss.

It also made things worse. 

He saw the horror in her eyes. 

_Shit. I forgot the rules. I crossed the line. I forgot to tell myself, forgot to believe–MJ isn’t my girlfriend anymore. I’ve just ruined a perfectly good lie.*_

They stared at each other, stunned. It had been four months since Peter had broken her heart, four months since he last tasted her mouth, four months of the tenuous post-breakup friendship they were both trying to hold onto.

Maybe neither of them would ever bring it up again, Peter hoped. It was too embarrassing and confusing, what he just did. Maybe they could go back to how things were before as if it never happened: friends who used to date, who amicably and (mostly) mutually broke up, and still hung out, platonically.

And maybe he could even do it all over again someday, get it right and be the kind of boyfriend MJ deserves.

But that day was definitely not today, not in that moment when MJ was watching him so warily, as if he could really hurt her. 

He _did_ hurt her, though, Peter reminded himself. That was all he ever did to her. 

But then she pulled him close, pressing her hips against his, and he found his hands up her shirt, and they were kissing again, harder and more purposefully this time. MJ felt so good in his arms that he could almost forget.

"I'm not—we're not getting back together," he panted, "I just couldn't help it—"

"I know. Me neither," MJ gasped back. "Just give me this, Peter."

So he did, and bit by bit they blurred the line between them a little more.

===

When he feels the mattress shift under him, Peter blinks awake, and the sudden absence of the warm weight against his chest makes him shiver.

"Shit, shit, I'm going to be late again," growls MJ. "And Jameson's going to put my head on a pike and use it for screaming practice."

"Even after all the exclusive Spidey coverage you've given the Bugle?" Peter replies groggily, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"You mean the 'op-ed, emphasis on the _opinion'_ pieces he barely tolerates, only because I've got the exclusive Spidey photos to go with it?"

Peter shrugs and watches his ex-girlfriend continue to shuffle frantically around her room, contentedly eying her long legs and the way the morning sunlight washes over her bare skin. 

MJ bends over to step into her underwear, giving him a brain-melting view of where his face was buried last night, and he feels himself stir beneath the sheets.

Hearing him groan appreciatively, she looks back at Peter over her shoulder with a little smirk, and slides her underwear back on with a snap. 

The night before, Peter had crawled through her bedroom window just as MJ was coming out of the shower, shaking out her wet hair and wearing only a damp bathrobe.

His intention was just to check in on her before heading home after patrol. Some robbers had set off a bomb at a bank near the Chinese restaurant he and MJ used to go to for take-out, when they used to live together. No one was reported hurt from the explosion, but it made him uneasy to think about how MJ could have been there, ordering her usual (“C2 with lo mein and an egg drop soup”) when the bomb went off. 

Rationally, he knew that everyone was at risk of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, especially in New York, inexplicably every supervillain’s favorite stomping ground. But he still wanted to see her before turning in for the night, confirm with his own eyes that she was fine, and maybe kiss her goodnight.

But the annoyed look MJ shot him when he first arrived made him second-guess his plan entirely.

“You stink,” she said, arms crossed. Steam from the bathroom fogged into her bedroom, and wet footprints followed her across the floor. 

"Sorry, I won't be long. Just wanted to see you."

"Is that all?"

Peter was trying really hard not to think of all the times they'd showered together, but the water dripping down her lean calves and dotting her collarbone was making it impossible.

Before he could reply, MJ threw her arms around his neck and crushed her lips against his. 

Snaking a hand to his chest, she smacked the spider-shaped vacuum-release on his suit, making the thick fabric go slack and fall around his waist, and proceeded to hungrily run her hands up and down his exposed abs and chest. It filled him with an intense and throbbing desire to do more than kiss her.

He gripped her hips over her bathrobe, feeling the heat of her body radiate through the fabric. The rough texture of the terrycloth under his palms made him think of her soft, smooth skin beneath, and how much he wanted to feel all of her.

Peter tugged at the ties of her robe, loosening them and exposing the stretch of her skin between her breasts and down to her waist. 

Following his lead, MJ shrugged off the rest of her robe and let it drop to her feet. 

Then their hands and mouths were all over each other, grabbing and scratching and licking as they fell to her floor in a tangle of limbs. 

"You should get out of here, too,” says MJ, interrupting Peter’s reverie. She's unfortunately almost fully dressed for work. “Don't you have some cats to save, or morning commuters to stop from jaywalking?"

“Oh, um, yeah. Sorry, I’ll get out of your hair.”

His mask and suit are strewn on the floor next to her clothes, and Peter’s chest clenches at the familiar sight of their belongings mixed up together. He reluctantly plucks his things out of the pile, separating himself from her life.

"Want to come over tonight? I'll cook dinner," Peter suggests casually, but his eyes are intent on her, and his heart dangling on his sleeve.

But the look on MJ’s face when she turns to look at him makes his stomach drop.

"Peter. We talked about this. You can't keep bringing up couple-y things for us to do. It’s… confusing."

"Friends have dinner together."

"Yeah, but they don't end up naked and sweaty together on the couch afterwards," she counters, referring to the last time Peter had her over for dinner, in more ways than one. “Or licking dessert off of—”

“Friends-with-benefits do. Isn't that the benefits part?” He walks up behind her to fasten the dresshook at the nape of her neck. Breaking up was his idea, but becoming friend-with-benefits was hers.

"I have plans tonight anyway."

"Oh? What kind of plans?"

She turns around to meet his eyes and raises an eyebrow, indicating he's not as subtle as he likes to think he is. "I'm meeting Harry Osborn at some members-only dinner club."

Peter frowns. "I thought that was just an interview thing, for work?"

"It is. He's super busy though since taking over as CEO, so tonight’s the only time he could do the interview."

"Saturday night's the only time he's free? For dinner?"

"What do you care?”

Peter hasn't told anyone about what he saw in his final fight with the Green Goblin, not even MJ. He hasn't told her that he saw the face beneath the Goblin's mask before the supervillain died, crushed by his own glider—Norman Osborn's face, Harry's father and ex-CEO of OsCorp. 

“I don’t care," he mumbles. "And I know I don’t get to care, even if I _did_ care. Which I don’t. It’s just weird, that’s all, that he’d make a work thing into a date.”

MJ tilts her head, her expression softening in that quiet, understanding way of hers, and that makes Peter feel worse than when she's angry with him. He glances away, trying not to get distracted by the warm honey smell of her that fills the entire room.

"You're the one that wanted this," she reminds him, her breath tickling his neck. When did she get so close? Her hand is resting on his arm.

Peter's expression darkens. "I didn't want this. It was… necessary."

It was a particularly close call that did it for him, but he’d been thinking about doing it for a while. MJ’s job often put her near the frontlines of danger, and he knew it didn’t have to do with being Spider-Man’s girlfriend. But what if someone found out? She’d be such an easy target, already at the scene. 

Scorpion had grabbed her by sheer chance, randomly plucked her out of the crowd of reporters with his metal claw. An excruciating terror seized Peter’s entire body, his Spidey-sense screaming, overwhelming him, and that was the last straw for him.

But he misses her so much he can't stand it anymore. 

And if he's honest with himself, he knows he wasn’t protecting anyone by pushing her away, just giving up the chance to make new memories with MJ. He's already haunted by the ones he has, and he doesn't want to be haunted by the ones that could have been.

MJ rolls her eyes. "I'm the one that should be offended. You don't want to date me anymore, but you still want to fuck and have me whenever you want?"

"It's not like that, Em," he pleads. They’ve had this same argument so many times before, and they keep going in the same circles, saying the same things to each other without really listening.

"This isn't working, Peter. This half-ass thing we're doing."

"Then let's go full-ass!"

MJ sighs at him, and there’s nothing teasing about it. She looks tired and frustrated—just done with him.

"Okay, fine, that sounds dumb,” he continues desperately. “But you know what I mean. I want to try again, I'm ready."

"What's different this time? Feeling nostalgic from last night? Or is it because you're jealous that some billionaire playboy is taking me out to dinner—"

"You said it was a work thing! And more like multi-millionaire, I don't think OsCorp is worth anywhere near a billion—"

Grabbing his shoulders, MJ gets into his face and forces him to look at her. “Stop. Just tell me what’s different this time, Peter. What do you want from me? Friendship? Sex? Because I keep going along with whatever ridiculous notion of our relationship you come up with, and it’s never enough. Nothing I do—”

A sob catches her by surprise, but MJ gulps it down and continues, voice watery, “Nothing I do is ever enough. You want space, so I give you space. Then you change your mind, and—”

“It wasn’t about giving me space, it was about keeping you safe—” 

With a growl, MJ shoves him in the chest, hard. “Goddammit, Peter. You sound like a broken record player, and so do I for saying that to you. I can’t keep doing this—”

“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying now. That _was_ why I broke up with you, but then I realized how stupid that was.” He takes a deep breath. "I don't know if you know this about me, but I've made a lot of mistakes.”

MJ snorts.

“But I don’t want to make a mistake with you that can’t be fixed," says Peter, taking hold of her hands. “And that includes missing out on all the good stuff, just because I was too afraid of bad stuff maybe happening. Sorry, that doesn’t sound very eloquent, but you know what I mean.”

She wipes at her eyes with her forearm. “What are you saying, Peter?”

“I just love you so much, Em, and that makes me so scared of losing you that I don’t know what to do. So I end up doing and saying something stupid.”

"And I'm still late as fuck. We'll talk more tonight," she says, sniffling, and grabs her purse.

"After your date?"

"After my dinner-interview."

"What if dinner becomes drinks?"

"Then you'll have to wait a little longer for me."

The pout he gives her makes MJ smile, and when the door clicks shut behind her, Peter lets himself fall back into bed, indulging in the scent of her surrounding him.

She's waited long enough for him to get his shit together; Peter can wait another day for her. He'll wait for her for as long as it takes. Closing his eyes, he reaches into his boxers and thinks of last night and all the positions he had MJ in.

But he sits up abruptly when he hears footsteps outside coming closer.

The door swings open and MJ comes storming through, tugging her jacket off and kicking her shoes across the floor.

"Fuck it," she says, climbing on top of Peter. "You might chicken out if you have all day to overthink this. Do you really mean it, dork? You want to give us another shot?"

He helps her push her dress up over her hips and looks up at her. "Yes, if you'll give me another chance." 

That seems to satisfy her, and with a hungry and dark look in her eyes, MJ presses the tip of his cock against her opening. She's still slick from his load last night, so Peter slides easily into her on the first try using his own cum.

"Fuck…" he groans.

"Mmm… you're so eloquent," she teases, rolling her hips as he pulls in and out of her. 

A ragged cry escapes Peter's throat and he can't think about anything but the hot, tight sensation of MJ clenched around him. Burying his face in her neck, he sucks at her throat and murmurs promises and apologies.

The wet sounds of his thrusts and her throaty moans fill his head, and it's all he can do to hold out until she gets to her peak. 

When he feels her body tense and shudder, Peter finally lets go. MJ collapses on top of him, her thighs still shaking, and he wraps his arms tight around her, listening to her heart thundering in her chest.

"Okay," she says breathlessly, rolling off of him. "I'm going to work for real this time."

Peter catches her hand before she walks away. "I'll see you tonight? Unless you decide to run off with Mr. Busy CEO, that is."

"Don't you worry," says MJ, tugging her dress back down. "I only date idiots, remember?"

"Must be my lucky day then," Peter grins at his girlfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> *Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1


End file.
